This week is a special week to me. March 1st I will celebrate my 5th Anniversary with my wife Christen. The 5th year kinda snuck up on us. It hit me out of nowhere. I turned to Christen and said “can you believe we have been married for 5 years already?” Her reaction was surprised and then I could tell that the gears were turning. She replied with another comment of “for only 5 years we have been through a lot.”
We indeed have been through a lot. The first year of marriage was a tough one. We both had to work through some deep skeletons in our secret closets. Goodness I am honestly shocked sometimes that she stuck with me. I put her through some tough scenarios and not ones I am proud of. Not only did we have to work through some hard personal issues but we had to live through a townhouse fire.
Our first land lord out at a old farm house turned out to be a bad deal so we needed to look elsewhere to live. We found a nice townhouse with an awesome fireplace, good size kitchen, lots of storage space and just felt like home. Well, the bad part was we had some party neighbors. Long story short there were many weekends calling the cops to come break up fights, parties and loud drunk partiers. One weekend after they woke from their hangovers one of the stellar neighbors neglected to put out a cigarette and ended up catching the entire building on fire. We were fortunate. We were at home with Glory and Faith when the fire broke out. Some of our stuff was saved, but most if not all our furniture was ruined. I was so thankful for our one room that had all our unreplaceable items in it, was not touched.
The first year of our marriage was under fire. But a refining fire. The fire that jewels go under before the beautification process. That fire even though at times felt like it was separating us actually made us stronger and brought us together. We love each other. We had to fight for out love. Almost six months of post marital counseling helped. We both are stubborn people in our own regards and we did not want to give up on each other no matter how hard things got. I admit that the first year sucked. I did not enjoy a lot of it. But I am committed to her. I love her. Christen is an amazing woman. She literally makes my life better. Again that first year was tough, but I am SO thankful we are together.
This was also the year that the movie Fire Proof came. Oh what a fitting movie for the time it came out. It was a breath of hope. I love how God will use all sorts of ways to reach out to those who are crying out for an outlet and for hope. This was the first year that I felt alone even though I was married. My two best friends Mike and John moved to Redding, CA and I want to so desperately wanted to be there with them. 2008 was the year God taught me to have my own faith and not rely on the fire of other Christians. But to kindle my own fire and passion for Him. I had to find faith, trust and hope in God on my own with nobody else’s help. Others can not live my faith.
God brought Christen and I through some tough times. I am so thankful for Christen. She means the world to me. I am so curious to see how God will use us in the next five years.
Stay tuned to hear about year two tomorrow!
